I found my THING! – Simone Darwen

I found my THING!
I have always been searching for ‘my thing’… Everyone around me is settling down, they know what they’re doing, know what they want and they have either got it or they are working hard for it, good careers, their own little families and well-practiced hobbies. Perfect.

I on the other hand, am a bit of a whirlwind. Don’t know the meaning of routine and I never really know what I am going to do next or where I’m going to be. Tried various classes, gyms, diets, bought all of the clothes/gadgets/teabags/equipment/superfoods etc and I never really found my place. My bosses mrs runs and she is absolutely mad for it, running in excess of 10k every day. We are pretty similar so I figured if she enjoys it so much then I might too! And the beauty of running is that you can do it WHEREEVER, WHENEVER, with WHOEVER or even on your own!! Great 😀

I downloaded the c25k app on my phone and after 4 weeks of week 1 day 1, a lot of very fast running, not much breath and those watery sick jets in your mouth – I gave up.

3 years later, after spotting that my friend had gone on a taster run with the fulwood lot, I decided to dig abit deeper and find out more about the RRRR beginner c25k club. I emailed Pete and he reserved me a spot on the March course.
I rode up on my new bike in my new running top and latched on to other brightly dressed, sporty looking folk; all different ages, shapes and sizes but all sharing the same interest and enthusiasm. I felt nervous and excited, like I presume a small fish in a big pond would haha. Off we went ‘lampposting’. The first few weeks were pretty easy, I am reasonably active in general anyway but not everyone has the opportunity to be! So we all plodded along together every Thursday night for 10 weeks. Having loads of fun, chatting whilst running along, getting to know each other and laughing away during the games… working toward our graduation run.

The later on in the course we got, the harder it became. Pete gave us homework runs to do which really did make a difference; I struggled doing them on my own as I run too fast and knacker myself out. As soon as run club night was over, I began counting down the days til the next one 😀
We did a few broken runs around Avenham Park week 8 & 10, to get to know the ParkRun course and gain an understanding about how much to give where & not to be scared of that hill!! With all of our runs as a beginner group, we did run quite far! But always with little breaks here and there. ParkRun was the big one! (but you can walk the hill for a break if you want to 😉 )

It is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE HOW MUCH PROGRESS YOU CAN MAKE! I am genuinely amazed how much Pete and the group have helped me on the 1st step of my running journey. I couldn’t do it without any of you and I am so proud of you all. I ran the entirety of the course in 30:35 (including sprint finish!!) thanks to my RRRRun buddies paired up with me on the day and I have officially got the bug now. I am looking forward to running loads more with the club now I have ‘moved ponds’!!

If you have the tiniest urge to join on to the next course DO IT without hesitation. You will totally do the opposite to regretting it; you will in fact want to go out with your run family at every opportunity whilst having the best time, getting fit and healthy (with lovely surprising physical benefits) and making some real quality friends in the process
Thankyou so much to Pete for being a quality trainer and to my c25k crew for being the perfect guys to run and learn with <3